Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold

Rated PG-1390 minutes2011

The Greatest Movie Ever Sold is a great concept for a documentary. In this film about product placement, it is not the product placement that undoes Morgan Spurlock’s concept; it’s Spurlock himself who flattens the film’s upward curve. By interjecting himself too much into this rather thorough and insightful investigation of movies as two-hour billboards, the director of Super Size Me blocks our view—and maybe his own—of the message he’s trying to send. In trying to magnify the problem of product placement, Spurlock instead focuses on the problem of financing his own movie through product placement. It’s funny and smart, but has no true payoff—so it’s hard to gauge whether The Greatest Movie Ever Sold sold out too much or not enough.
ByColin Boyd